How 'dirty business' is helping companies clean up on profits

Incentives

In countries such as Germany, Australia and Lithuania, consumers pay a deposit for products that employ recyclable single-use packaging material, and the deposit is only returned when the packaging is recycled.

"This has proved to be the most effective way of raising the recycling rate to an average of 95 percent," said Liu, whose company has partnered with Coca-Cola to recycle the company's packaging waste in China.

This year, the European Union announced a strategy to make all plastic packaging in the EU recyclable by 2030.

Multinational corporations are often criticized for producing huge amounts of packaging waste, but Coca-Cola, Procter& Gamble and Colgate have announced commitments to introduce 100 percent recyclable packaging by 2030.

"Producers should be responsible, and play a larger role in recycling their packaging waste," Liu said. "Once the recycling rate rises, we will have the technology and capacity to turn waste into valuable resources, and plastic pollution will stop growing."

According to Gui of BGG Recycle, the great challenge is to address the bias against recycling and attract more talent to the sector.

"Many talented people don't consider recycling as a career, and experienced collectors are used to working on their own. It will take time for this long-established sector to recognize modern values," she said.

"The future of this industry lies in the intelligent transformation of old practices.

"An intelligent recycling and reuse system is inevitable. The entire process, from the production of waste, to circulation and waste processing companies, should be monitored, supervised and deployed properly."